In a bid to curb piracy, various ISPs are said to be launching their version of the Six Strikes program sometime this week. The ISPs in question are the big boys, including Verizon, AT&T, Comcast, Time Warner, and Cablevision. According to reports, each ISP will be launching its own version of the program at different times this week, with Comcast set to go first sometime today.

Known as the Copyright Alert System (CAS), the program is also referred to as the Six Strikes program due to its graduated response system. Though the graduated steps aren’t entirely clear just yet — and can differ between ISPs — each step becomes more severe, with the lower-tier responses being warnings, and the higher-tier responses being anything from having to watch an “educational” video to throttling bandwidth.

Seeing as how the video is on YouTube, and it supports a program that many argue infringes on the rights of internet users (or at least, would be a pain to deal with), we wouldn’t be surprised if someone hits the video with a bogus DMCA takedown. To some, it would be delicious irony.

Back in January, Verizon’s Six Strikes policy reportedly leaked, and detailed a process that begins as simple warnings in the form of emails and automated voicemail messages. The third and fourth infringements will result in the user’s browser being redirected to a site that forces them to watch an educational video about copyright infringement, then click on a popup that acknowledges they watched the video. The fifth infringement results in a bandwidth throttle, and the sixth could result in direct legal action.

As mentioned before, not every ISP has to take the same route, but it’s likely the plans will be similar to the above steps. We don’t condone piracy, but any kind of punishment system that can be mistaken (for example, because someone used your ISP without your knowledge) isn’t the most ideal kind of system. The only thing we can really do, though, is wait and see if the CAS causes more trouble problems than it intends to fix.